Henry Victor

Biography

Henry Victor was born on October 2, 1892 in England, but was raised in Germany. He began his film career in 1914, eventually playing leads in literary adaptations of The Portrait of Dorian Gray and H. Rider Haggard's She, both in 1916. When talkies appeared in the late 1920's, Victor's thick Teutonic accent was a detriment as a leading man in Hollywood, but he enjoyed a substantial career as a character actor in American and British films, specializing in brutish Nazis during World War II. He is probably best remembered for his portrayal of the sadistic strongman Hercules in Tod Browning's Freaks in 1932, a role that was originally considered for Victor McLaglan, whom Browning had worked with previously, along with Harry Earles, in The Unholy Three (1930). He also excelled as the beleaguered Nazi Captain Schultz in the Ernst Lubitsch classic To Be or Not to Be (1942) with Jack Benny and Carole Lombard. From 1914 to 1945, he appeared in over 100 films. Henry Victor prematurely died of a brain tumor on March 15, 1945 at the age of 52. He is buried at Oakwood Memorial Cemetery in Chatsworth, CA.